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Saturday, February 11, 2017

800 DYING WHALES, 3 PODS STRANDED OVER PAST 3 DAYS, NEW ZEALAD

Farewell Spit has been described as a whale trap. It has a long protruding coastline and gently sloping beaches that make it difficult for whales to swim away once they get close. It has been the site of previous mass whale beachings. The largest whale beaching incident reported from the country was nearly a century ago – back in 1918 when more than 1,000 Pilot whales were beached on the Chatham Islands. In 1985 too, more than 450 whales were stuck near Auckland. Meanwhile, rescue efforts to save the rest of the whales are still underway.

Department of Conservation Golden Bay Operations Manager Andrew Lamason said one option was to tether them to stakes in the shallow tidal waters and let them decompose. The problem with towing them out to sea or leaving them was that they could become gaseous and buoyant, and wind up floating into populated bays.

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of whale beachings in the world. Friday's beaching was the nation's third-biggest in history, the AP reported.

I HAD WRITTEN A CONSIDERABLY LENGTHY BLOG FOR THIS, BUT READING OVER IT, IT SEEMED PERHAPS TOO "HARSH", SO I WILL JUST SAY THIS, AS KINDLY AS I CAN...IT'S WONDERFUL THAT OVER 500 'VOLUNTEERS' TURNED OUT FOR THIS, BUT HOW MANY WERE TRAINED FOR THIS SPECIFIC PURPOSE? WHERE WERE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, TRAINED SPECIALISTS?

SINCE NEW ZEALAND IS INFAMOUS FOR SUCH EVENTS AND HAS THE RECORD FOR MOST DEATHS AND STRANDINGS, WHY THE BLOODY HELL HASN'T NEW ZEALAND'S GOVERNMENT MADE BETTER PLANS AND TRAINED MORE PEOPLE TO HANDLE THESE SO THAT MORE WHALES MIGHT BE RESCUED?

THREE CHEERS FOR THESE PEOPLE GETTING OUT THERE AS THEY DID, BUT SINGING TO THE WHALES, PUTTING WET BED SHEETS ON THEM AND STROKING THEM AS THEY DIE IS NOT AN ANSWER TO SUCH TRAGEDY.

SURELY AFTER HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF SEEING THIS HAPPEN OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, SOMEBODY IN GOVERNMENT PERHAPS HAD AN IDEA THAT THE NATION NEEDS TRAINED CREWS AND SPECIAL EQUIPMENT FOR THIS, WAYS TO HELP PREVENT IT?

As three separate pods of whales have beached over three nights, and Farewell Spit has been closed to volunteer rescuers as darkness falls, there is fear there will be carnage in the morning. DOC operations manager Andrew Lamaman confirmed the whales in the latest stranding were unmarked, which indicated they were from a new, unidentified pod.

As the sun set on Saturday, the Department of Conservation cleared the beach of volunteers as it became too risky to carry out efforts to refloat the up to 200 whales beached in five separate groups along the coast from as far as Puponga to Triangle Flats along the Spit.Some of the 100 newly stranded whales on Saturday morning had been attacked, and there had been a concern over blood in the water.

As efforts were abandoned, leaving the nearly 200 whales struggling overnight, it is feared even more whales could be stranded by sunrise in yet another mass stranding. This afternoon, DOC cleared the spit and euthanised 20 of the surviving whales with a rifle, whales which were too ill to be rescued or stay alive.

"You have to hedge your bets, whether you use your resources to save 20 whales that are very sick or 200 healthy ones," said Department of Conservation Golden Bay Operations manager Andrew Lamason

The tide is now going out in Golden Bay, with low tide around 5pm.

He said the whales are only seven kilometres along the spit and are still in very real danger.

"We've got boats out there and we're trying to keep them offshore, but they've got a long way to go," he said.

Lamason had said high tide was at 11.30am and they would try to re-float the stranded whales then.

Volunteers led by the DOC tried desperately on Saturday to deal with the new beachings on top of the remainder of the original standing of 416 on Thursday.

Volunteers and DOC staff were attempting to reach the fresh stranding sites, while still trying to keep the ones from the original stranding on Thursday night alive.

Volunteers had until 8pm on Saturday night, when DOC would close the beach until the morning.

At high tide this morning, hundreds of whales were pushed offshore by volunteers who formed a human chain in the waves.

"There's a disastrous number of dead animals there at the top of the beach," Neil Murray said.

Farewell spit is 26 kilometres long and the whales need to get to the end before they can reach the open sea.

Volunteers turned up on Friday and focused on keeping the whales cool as well as propping them up with sand to prevent them from breaking their fins.

Hundreds of volunteers turned up on Saturday morning to help the whales back into the sea as the tide came in.

Project Jonah general manager Daren Grover said there were about 40 whales left.

About 80 of the whales stranded earlier were either successfully refloated on Saturday morning or they had joined the larger super pod around midday.

"We don't know why the super pod came in," Grover said.

"They may have been picking up some calls from the whales here and come in to respond. It's very unusual, not something we have seen before.

There's no one reason why whales become beached. "They had a bunch of stingrays with the new whales. The smaller pod came close, I think what they are looking for is a larger whale who can lead them. The people are just trying to make them follow the others, but they didn't."

HUGE STRANDING'S TOLL

Thursday night's stranding of the pod of 416 whales was thought to be the third largest stranding of whales recorded in the country's history.

The huge pod had been seen swimming in Golden Bay that night.

About 300 – close to 75 per cent – had died by the time Department of Conservation (DOC) staff arrived on Friday morning.

Staff from DOC, Project Jonah and volunteers attempted to re-float the survivors at high tide, about 10.30am, but were only partially successful.

An estimated 50 whales, including the pod's matriarch, returned to the sea.

However, the remaining 80 to 90 survivors re-stranded in shallow water.

The mission for volunteers then changed to keeping them alive as the tide receded and the whales were exposed in puddles, or on the sand.

About 500 volunteers used sheets to cover the whales' thick skin and buckets to continuously pour water over them to keep them cool.

Having been cared for by hundreds of volunteers, about 50 surviving whales were left alone overnight. It had been hoped they would re-float naturally and swim back to sea at high tide, about 11.30pm, but that had not happened.

There were many theories among the people at Farewell Spit for why the whales stranded.

Murray said it was possible there were some sick animals that went in to strand and the rest of the pod followed.

Project Jonah coordinator Mark Rigby said he could not comment on the reasons for the stranding.

"All we know is it keeps happening. There will be people who will argue that it's natural. We're here for the welfare of the animals."

Definitely has
something to do with the oil drilling in the Cooks Straight. Shame on
the media for not linking this, or at least a possible link!

Definitely has
something to do with the oil drilling in the Cooks Straight. Shame on
the media for not linking this, or at least a possible link!

TO ME, HIS COMMENT SEEMS TO SUGGEST THERE MAY BE "UNNATURAL REASONS"

SOME OF THE READERS' COMMENTS ON THOSE NEWS ARTICLES ALSO POINTED FINGERS AT OFFSHORE OIL EXPLORATION.

24 HOURS A DAY, EVERY DAY, SEISMIC BLASTS EVERY 8 SECONDSTo survey for oil, the ship will blast underwater sound waves from arrays that drag for kilometres behind it every eight seconds, all day and night, for months on end.

The boom of these sound waves reverberates throughout the ocean, and can have chronic impacts on whales and dolphins and potentially deafen whales. These marine creatures depend on their hearing to survive, whether it’s for feeding and nursing young, or communicating with mates.

The ship will be seismic blasting between Napier and Kaikoura, an area inhabited by thousands of whales and dolphins.

The boat’s arrival in New Zealand coincided with two of the biggest local councils in the country, Auckland Council and Christchurch City Council, voting to oppose offshore oil prospecting, exploration and drilling.

An unprecedented alliance of Maori communities have also voiced opposition to deep water drilling on the East Coast. Almost 70 Maori hapū from Cape Runaway to Kaikoura have called on Statoil and Chevron to cease their operations and leave New Zealand. Over 6,000 New Zealanders have signed on to the letter.I CAN'T IMAGINE BEING A VICTIM OF ALL THAT BLASTING AND I DON'T HAVE THE ENHANCED SENSITIVITY THAT MARINE MAMMALS HAVE.

Despite the massive number of tremblers, it was a pair of quakes in September and November that caused the most damage.

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck 22 km (14 miles) deep off the northeast coast of New Zealand on September 2. A small tsunami was generated but damage to property was limited. But this seemed to be a mere warm-up act for the year's "big one."